E-cigarettes are not a proven cessation method

WASHINGTON — The United States surgeon general warned on Thursday that despite the well-known lethal dangers of cigarettes, too many smokers are not routinely advised by their doctors to quit.

In a new report, the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, urged smokers to use a range of cessation methods that have been proven effective — and cautioned that e-cigarettes have not.

“Forty percent of smokers don’t get advised to quit,” Dr. Adams said in an interview. “That was a shocking statistic to me, and it’s a little embarrassing as a health professional.”

He was referring to data collected in a 2015 national health survey that was included in the 700-page report released on Thursday. “Four out of every nine adult cigarette smokers who saw a health professional during the past year did not receive advice to quit,” the report noted.